Last week we ran a story on Tessie Goheen, whose family we’ve been following for the past four years. Tessie and her sisters, Becky and Katie, have a genetic condition, passed down from their late father Paul Goheen, that predisposes them to cancer. Becky and Katie have both survived cancer. Tessie, who was recently diagnosed, is in treatment. Tessie, always a gung-ho gal, is working to establish a cancer support center in Kitsap County in between chemotherapy treatments. The courage and resilience of the Goheen girls and their mother Beth has been sorely tried by their ordeal. The family is facing staggering medical and transportation costs.

It didn’t take long for friends of the family to step forward and establish a fund the help the family. To make a tax-deductible donation, visit any WAMU (Washington Mutual) branch and mention the Children of Paul Goheen fund, acct. number 3580779210.

To learn more about Tessie Goheen’s proposed cancer support center, visit www.MySpace.com/goheencancercenter or e-mail her at goheencancercenter@gmail.com. Donations may be made at any Washington Mutual branch, account 3580989968.

Store owners don’t like them setting up on sidewalks and stairways around malls andIn my experience as a reporter, there is a strange phenomenon in the news industry that I call “story clustering.” That’s when I write on one topic and related stories come up around the same time. Maybe there’s nothing cosmic to it. Maybe I’m just more tuned in.

Last week I wrote about a group who want to see a skateboard park build at South Kitsap Community Park. So when I saw a Code 911 item on the Web site from Sunday, “Skateboarder Hit Intentionally by SUV?” it caught my eye.

A 16-year-old skateboarder was knocked unconscious Friday afternoon as he was riding eastbound (and downhill) on Mile Hill Drive. According to the boy and his 17-year-old friend, the SUV didn’t stop, and the 16-year-old said it seemed like the driver swerved toward him on purpose.

Comments on the item range from those who sympathized with the skateboarder, calling out the driver, to those who criticized skateboarders in general saying they’ve been flipped off by surly youth riding in all the wrong places.

Skaters as a group have an image problem. shopping centers. Public areas with ramps, rails and steps are attractive to skaters, but not built for that purpose. Will the construction of a 25,000 S/F state-of-the-art skate facility in SK keep kids off the streets? Probably not. But in the process of getting it built, members of South Kitsap Skate Park Association, the nonprofit that’s pushing for the park, have the opportunity to be ambassadors for the best that skateboarding can be: highly athletic, highly entertaining, a healthy (if somewhat risky) diversion for youth (mostly guys) who might otherwise be letting boredom get them best of them.

My question, as a Mom, “Were those kids on Mile Hill wearing helmets?”

Here’s the final dispatch from Natalie Kathan, the South Kitsap student who is reporting on the Iditarod from Anchorage, Alaska. Find out all about Natalie at this previous blog post.

March 3
This is our last day in Alaska. The day was fully packed with awesome places and crazy wildlife. I started the day with a walk down the Coastal Trail that led me to a haunted house, moose tracks, and a statue of the famous Captain Cook. Captain Cook was the first British explorer to land in this area.

Moose Print (Photo courtesy of Kathan family)

Next we drove to the Alyeska Ski Resort which is south of Anchorage on the Turnagain Arm and took their tram to the 2,300 ft. level of Mt. Alyeska that gave us a bird’s eye view of the surrounding mountain ranges. The ride was incredible!

The 2nd stop was at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. I saw plain bison, wood bison, moose, brown bears, muskoxen, caribou, two great horned owls, Sitka black tailed deer, a porcupine, and a herd of elk. Did you know that both male and female caribou have antlers? Then in the fog and snow, I tried to spot Portage Glacier but it was impossible in the weather.

This evening I tracked my musher and as of tonight she is in 62nd place.

Musher Cindy Gallea off to Nome (Photo courtesy of Kathan family)

This is our last day in Anchorage and I’m sad to leave.

Natalie’s Daily Trivia: In the early 1900’s there were only 300 wood bison left in the world and all were in captivity. Thanks to the work of conservation groups they have grown to 3,000. There are still none living in the wild.

Click here for the wildlife center’s Web site.

Click here, for a complete wrap-up of the Kitsap Sun’s Iditarod coverage.

Natalie Kathan, 11, a student at South Colby Elementary School in South Kitsap has been reporting to her classmates from Anchorage, Alaska, where Natalie is part of the crowd taking in the legendary Iditarod dog sled race. The trip was made possible by Natalie’s sister, Celena Kathan, who bid on and won the chance for Natalie to ride in the ceremonial start of the race.

Here’s a video taken by Natalie on the trail Saturday, during the ceremonial race. It gives a musher’s-eye-view of the scenery. Check out the dog on the right that keeps taking bites of snow on the run.

Here’s Natalie, reporting from the start of the actual race Sunday. (Photo by Celena Kathan.)

Natalie writes:
My day was amazing! The Official Start of the Iditarod was today and all the mushers were getting their teams and sleds packed and the dogs prepped for their long trail trip. The mood was a lot more serious and the mushers were “in the zone.” They had 2 minute intervals between each dog team setting out to Nome and Cindy Gallea was the 82nd musher.

I enjoyed riding with Cindy so much that I wanted to wish her luck and see her off on the trail. I waited for a of couple hours and watched Cindy get her dogs and sled ready, observing everything that we could about what she put in her sled. I saw her put in very interesting things that were all very little. She put in chapstick, a little toothbrush and toothpaste, eye drops, inhaler, and a little bottle of champagne to celebrate!

Natalie rode with veteran musher Cindy Gallea. Here Gallea is ready to start the actual race on Sunday. (Photo courtesy of the Kathan family.)

When the number finally got to 80, we ran to the start line chute and waited for Cindy. I wished her good luck and thanked her from the crowd and then I took as many pictures as I could. Suddenly, after the horn, she was off on the trail heading for Nome for her 8th time.

She told me her goals for this Iditarod were to get in the top 30 and improve her time to 10 days. I hope she will reach them or even do better!

Once the restart of the race was over, we drove back home with a pit stop of ice cream. On my daily exploration I walked to the Ice Sculpture Park to get a few photos and saw a climbable ice castle with 2 ice slides. I slid down the slide twice and found it was surprisingly fast.

Adieu,
Natalie

Natalie’s Daily Trivia: The fastest Iditarod finishing time was 8 days, 22 hrs, 26 min, and 2 sec. The slowest Iditarod finishing time was 32 days, 5 hrs, 9 min, and 1 sec.

This weekend, the Kitsap Sun will run a story on a bill to make recess a mandatory part of elementary students’ school days that is making its way through the state Legislature.

South Kitsap School District Superintendent Bev Cheney said educators in her district value free play time, but they don’t need a law to make it happen.

A related bill, SB 5265, would create an outdoor education and recreation grant program aimed at underserved children.

Sen. Rosa Franklin, D-Tacoma, the mandatory recess bill’s sponsor, said children in her district have been shortchanged on time for unstructured play because of pressure on schools to meet state academic learning standards.

In South Kitsap, elementary students get two 15-minute recess periods, plus a portion of their 30-minute lunch period to blow off steam, said Cheney.

Because of the state’s requirements for instructional time, South Kitsap schools have the option to rearrange or combine those time periods, and in some cases, students may have two longer recesses as opposed to three shorter play times, Cheney said.

Cheney said this is simply a matter of “practice” and not a hard and fast policy. It just seems like the right thing to do.

“From our standpoint, we’re looking at the whole child,” said Cheney. “We believe the kids need to have some time to play. They need to have that opportunity to get up, run around and be physical.”

The Washington State Board of Health has endorsed the bill saying fresh air and physical activity helps combat obesity, teaches children how to cooperate with one another and helps them focus better once they’re back in the classroom.

Kim Howard of the Washington State PTA said that for two years in a row, recess has ranked high on members’ list of concerns at the organization’s legislative assembly, coming in fifth in 2006 and eighth in 2007.

“Parents are concerned the schedule is so tight,” said Howard. “I think the districts are trying to shave time to make sure students are getting all the learning time they’re supposed to.”

But so far, said Howard, the evidence that this is happening is mostly anecdotal. She said her organization needs to gather more hard data on recess time in districts around the state in order to promote the bill, which was first introduced during the 2007 session.

What’s happening in Kitsap? If you’re a parent, does it seem like your children are getting less recess time than they used to, or than you used to when you were a child?

Note Dec. 29, 9:21 a.m.: My apologies for the delay in posting your comments on this story. Here is the link to the story.

If you are a parent of one of the 1,500 kids in South Kitsap Soccer Club, you have already received an e-mail informing you that the Kitsap Peninsula Youth Soccer Association has assumed temporary leadership of the club. Disagreement among board members has interfered with the club’s ability to conduct business, said George Campbell, KPYSA president.

The complete story will be posted on kitsapsun.com a little later. I’ve pasted the first few graphs below. Note that the club will hold a general meeting Jan. 10 to elect new leadership.

Here’s the story in a nutshell (obviously not the whole story as the purpose here is primarily to publicize the meeting; feel free to contact me if you have pertinent information for follow-up articles.) :

A shake-up in leadership on the South Kitsap Socer Club Board of Directors has led the club’s parent organization, Kitsap Peninsula Youth Soccer Association, to assume temporary authority over general elections and other business.
The club will hold its general assembly meeting at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 10 at Givens Center in Port Orchard. Parents of children on SKSC teams are encouraged to attend. Board members for the 2008-09 season will be elected at the meeting.
KPYSA president George Campbell of Silverdale announced in mid-December that he was taking over as acting president of the club until a new president could be elected.
Former president Bill Hammer of Port Orchard resigned shortly before Campbell’s e-mail was sent to club members.
One thing on which both men agree is that conflict among board members contributed to the situation.
“South Kitsap has had some fighting going on, disagreements and everything else,” said Campbell. “It’s been going on for a while, but it came to light a few months ago. They’ve been unable to get club business done. We were asked to look into things, and we did. We thought it got settled, but it got ugly.”